The Millennium Villages Project has been working with governments and communities to provide better public health services, clean water and sanitation, more reliable food production, better roads and schools and other services to more than 500,000 people across 10 African countries. A group of researchers who studied the impact of the program in Millennium Villages Project sites found the mortality rate among children under age 5 dropped by 22 percent in just three years, according to the study, published May 8 in the British journal Lancet.
Now the CHWs are seen to be a key part of a functioning primary health system. This system should include a clinic within short walking distance, with supplies, a skilled birth attendant and other staff, electricity, and safe water; an ambulance for emergency transport; an emergency “911” number; a policy of free care at the point of service (so as not to turn away the indigent); and trained and remunerated CHWs, taught also to treat diseases and save lives in the community.
